Confessions of a stress-baker.

Not another chocolate chip cookie recipe…

…But actually, it is.

White, Dark, & Milk Triple Chocolate Cookies

If George Foreman can name all five of his sons, “George Edward Foreman,” then I can certainly have multiple chocolate chip cookie recipes here on this blog. It’s only fair.

So, what’s different about these bad boys? A bit of a puffier cookie, the addition of ground-up, toasted oats, and a knock-your-socks-off trifecta of chocolates. Similar to how the Harry Potter books and movies should be considered as entirely independent entities IMHO, I don’t like to directly compare my chocolate chip cookie recipes. Just as the HP & the Chamber of Secrets movie could not accommodate Nearly Headless Nick’s Death Day party, my Copy Cat Entenmann’s Chocolate Chip Cookies (or the You-Won’t-Miss-the-Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, Gooey Chocolate Chip Cookies, or even my Classic(ish) Chocolate Chip Cookies) could not accommodate the ground oats that make these White, Dark, & Milk Triple Chocolate Cookies so satisfying — think about it, this is a tremendous analogy.

I recently partook in a Chik-fil-A chocolate chip cookie, and I was pleasantly surprised by how delicious it was! The baker in me was instantly enthralled, and began examining the crumb of the cookie (that is, before I crammed the rest of it in my mouth, ending all research attempts). I spotted a small oatmeal fleck in amongst the chewy cookie center, and I was instantly reminded of the famous Neiman Marcus cookie. I had previously read a blog post about the Neiman Marcus cookie, and I had been surprised to see that these eponymous cookies contained ground oats as part of the not-so-secret recipe. As a texture-o-phile, I was intrigued by this idea, and, with the added blessing of Chik-fil-A, I figured it was time for a new FoodSwing recipe.

I have taken, of late, to toasting my daily oatmeal oats in the oven with some cinnamon & nutmeg, and the result has been wonderful. I decided to use these spiced, toasted oats in this cookie experiment. Toasting the oats takes only about 10 minutes, once the oven is totally preheated to 350 — all you’re going for is a slight browning and a warm, oaty aroma.

Another appealing facet of both the Neiman Marcus and Chik-fil-A cookies is their lack of commercial chocolate chips. Whether it was Mr. Marcus, Mr. fil-A, or somebody else, whoever first chopped/shaved/grated a whole chocolate bar into cookie dough, deserves a Nobel Eats Prize.

The resulting heterogeneous array of chocolate morsels in the baked cookies is to-die-for. The smallest flecks melt into the dough as it bakes, rendering the dough itself every bit as appealing as the mix-ins, while the larger chunks become puddles of soft chocolatey bliss, guaranteed to improve your quality of life by at least two points on a Likert scale.

How can we continue to make this story better? We can use three types of chocolate, that’s how! Technically, I should say two types of chocolate and one type of candy (since white chocolate isn’t really chocolate), but, I’m wordy enough as is , so please look past this omission — unlike Charles Dickens, I’m not paid by the word.

My overarching goal in this iteration of chocolate chip cookiedom was to create a cookie in which the dough serves not simply as a vehicle for the chocolate, but actually tastes as good as the chocolate. My next quest is to create a delectable, edible spoon designed specifically for ice cream consumption — that’s a tall order though, so I’ll need to rest up a bit first 🙂

White, Dark, & Milk Triple Chocolate Cookies

YIELD: 3 dozen cookies

Note: To toast a batch of oats, preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Spread an even layer of old-fashioned oats over the parchment, sprinkle with cinnamon, nutmeg, & sesame seeds. Toast for 10 minutes, stirring every 3-5 minutes to prevent burning. Once you can smell the oaty aroma upon opening your oven door and a slight browning has begun, they’re done! Allow to cool on cookie sheet, stirring every 5 minutes for the first 15 minutes of cooling. Completely cooled, toasted oats may be stored in an air-tight jar or canister. Use these extra-oatified oats in your everyday oatmeal and cookie recipes or sprinkle over yogurt.

1 teaspoon kosher salt + a tad more for baking

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Place the oats in a food processor, and pulse to form a coarse meal — you don’t want to pulverize them into a powder, just break them up a bit [see pictures, above]. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or a regular mixing bowl, add the granulated sugar, chilled brown butter, softened butter, brown sugar, & espresso powder (in that order), and cream together, on medium speed, for 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, then vanilla, and beat for an additional 2 minutes. In a separate bowl, use a fork to combine the ground oats, both flours, cornstarch, baking soda, & salt, fluffing together to break up any flour clods. Turn mixer to low speed, and gradually add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl, stopping mixer when only a few flour-streaks still remain (if your dough looks too dry, you can add up to 1 tablespoon of milk). Add the grated chocolates and walnuts, and stir together using as few turns of the mixer as possible.

Line a large plate with wax paper, and scoop 1.5-tablespoonfuls of dough onto the prepped plate. Cover plate tightly with plastic wrap, and chill for 3-24 hours. For baking at a much later time, scooped dough may be placed in fully-burped, zip-top freezer bags.

Remove dough from fridge 90 minutes prior to baking. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line your baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Space out 6-8 cookies per sheet, add a small sprinkle of kosher salt to each cookie, and bake for 9 – 9.5 minutes, rotating sheet after 5 minutes of baking. Allow cookies to sit on hot sheets for 3 minutes, then remove to wire racks for complete cooling.

Cooled cookies may be stored in airtight containers, at room temp, for up to 5 days, but I can assure you that they’ll disappear well before then!